Tag: Time

The plot of Avengers 4 has remained tightly under wraps – we don’t even know the title! But as the comic book movie sequel continues production, secret plot details have inevitably begun to surface.

Since Avengers 4 started production in August 2017, there have been some exciting snapshots of new costumes, gnarly hair cuts, and lots of grim-faced Marvel superheroes. But the most intriguing picture of all — a set photo of Chris Evans in a familiar costume — could have wide-ranging implications for the plot of the fourth Avengers movie, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies that follow it.

What does the future of the MCU look like? A little retro, to be honest. On Wednesday TMZ released a photo of Chris Evans on the set of Avengers 4, clean-shaven and wearing his old Avengers-era Captain America suit. It’s a patriotic outfit that Steve Rogers had shed long ago, since he started working for S.H.I.E.L.D. in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. He later repurposed his old World War II fighting outfit, but he never went back to that “old-fashioned” stars and stripes get-up from the first Avengers.

So why is he wearing it in Avengers 4? Well, the most obvious answer would be: time travel.

Yes, that does seem like a huge leap of an answer to a makeover, but like a certain 2017 movie wisely said, Marvel has been giving us all the clues. Nerdist first picked up on it after combing through the costume changes and mysterious Robert Downey Jr. Instagram pictures back in December. First, there was an online photo from Downey Jr. featuring a hole in his shirt for the arc reactor that Tony Stark used to have. Jeremy Renner was seen sporting a costume that looked eerily similar to Hawkeye’s Ronin persona that he may have adopted in a future or altered timeline. Casting calls have been made for scenes possibly set in the ’60s and ’40s. Captain Marvel, whose solo film is set in the ’90s and deals heavily with the quantum realm, will make an appearance in Avengers 4. And Ant-Man and the Wasp, which is also centered around the quantum realm, is reported to have a major impact on the events of Avengers 4.

It all adds up to more than just a few flashbacks. This could mean a whole Back to the Future-style plot where the team jumps through time and space, attempting to change history itself.

Traveling in Time and Space

Okay, this is the part where the theorizing starts. Put on your tinfoil hats.

Avengers 4 will very likely follow Thanos beating the Avengers and finishing the completion of the Infinity Gauntlet, scattering the team into alternate timelines or dimensions in the process. The story could follow them going to key moments in history — the battle of New York in the first Avengers film, the ’90s when Captain Marvel first gains her powers — and attempting to change its course. Or they could be attempting to foil Thanos’ early grasps for the Infinity Stones. This could be a result of the Time Stone that we were first introduced to in Doctor Strange, which Stephen Strange used against Dormammu, or the Avengers could be making use of the quantum realm — a dimension that transcends time and space.

If Avengers 4 does indeed have a time travel plot, this opens up infinite (pun intended) possibilities for the MCU. This could be the universe-shattering event that Kevin Feige and the Anthony and Joe Russohave been hinting at, a whole new chapter for the MCU that involves not just the cosmos, but alternate worlds and alternate dimensions.

“See you in 1938.” Let’s kick off the New Year by taking a time travel trip into 2018! A trailer has launched for a wacky little indie film titled Future ’38, a spoof of classic screwball comedies from the 1930s. The story involves a man being sent via time travel into the future, 80 years ahead to the year 2018, to help them figure out how to solve their problems in the past. Something about defeating Hitler, but then he falls for a young lady, and it all becomes a big mess. The film’s cast features Betty Gilpin, Nick Westrate, Ethan Phillips, Sean Young, Robert John Burke, and Ilana Becker, with an appearance by Neil deGrasse Tyson. This actually looks very fun! Yes, it’s super cheesy, but it seems like they nailed the tone and balance of humor and quirk and screwball-ness for a very amusing, entertaining little film. Might be worth a watch. ›››

The cast for A Wrinkle in Time includes Oprah Winfrey (Selma, The Butler) as Mrs. Which, Reese Witherspoon (Wild, Walk the Line) as Mrs. Whatsit, Mindy Kaling (The Mindy Project, Inside Out) as Mrs. Who, Chris Pine (Star Trek Beyond, Hell or High Water,Into the Woods”) as Mr. Murry, Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Beauty and The Beast, Belle) as Mrs. Murry, Zach Galifianakis (Birdman, The Hangover) as The Happy Medium, Michael Peña (Ant-Man, The Martian) as Red, André Holland (Moonlight, Selma) as Principal Jenkins, Levi Miller (Pan) as Calvin, Deric McCabe as Charles Wallace, and introducing Storm Reid as the iconic literary character Meg Murry.

Bellamy Young, Rowan Blanchard and Will McCormack round out the highly-acclaimed cast.

The film is a reimagining of Madeleine L’Engle’s classic novel that takes Meg Murry, her brilliant brother Charles Wallace and their friend Calvin on an unexpected journey into alternate dimensions on a mission to bring home their father. First published in 1962, L’Engle’s novel has sold more than 23 million copies worldwide, receiving a recent surge following Chelsea Clinton’s mention during the Democratic National Convention. Winner of the Newbery Prize in 1963, “A Wrinkle in Time” has been translated into 35 languages.

Disney’s A Wrinkle in Time movie is directed by Ava DuVernay (Selma) and produced by Jim Whitaker and Catherine Hand. Jennifer Lee (Frozen) wrote the screenplay. A Wrinkle in Time is set to debut in theaters on March 9, 2018.

With the ongoing release of 2017 movie scripts as part of the studios annual For Your Consideration campaigns, it’s a great time to resume our Go Into The Story Script Reading and Analysis Series. To date, we have covered 63 movie scripts of such notable movies as Argo, Arrival, and Boyhood, all the way up to Up In The Air, Whiplash, and The Wolf of Wall Street.

Last year, the studios and production companies released nearly 50 scripts, so there’s a lot more to come in the next two months.

What I propose: Let’s read and analyze one 2017 movie script every other week beginning in January 2018.

Here’s where you come in: We need volunteers to read a script and provide a scene-by-scene breakdown as the launching point for our weekly discussions. Trust me, this will be a great learning experience for you and we can add your breakdown to the 55 we already have in archives, thereby adding to a valuable resource for the online writing community.

To download PDFs of the scene-by-scene breakdowns we have aggregated to date, go here.

For those folks who volunteer to do a scene-by-scene breakdown of a 2017 movie script, you not only get your name duly noted in a blog post and your name enshrined in archives, you also get a special dose of creative juju.

Finally allow me to use the words of one of Hollywood’s hottest screenwriters to bludgeon you over the head with the value of reading scripts. From my most recent interview, Jon Spaihts responds to my final question, What advice would you offer to aspiring screenwriters about learning the craft and breaking into Hollywood? Here’s his answer:

Read the script and then watch the movie. Watch the movie and then read the script. Watch the movie with the script in your lap. Study the parts. You have to see through the surfaces. Being a fan is insufficient. Break it down. That means slowing it down and looking at it through a series of different lenses.

Once you’ve begun to do that, you can see what the parts of a screenplay and the parts of a movie do.

First thing Jon said: Read scripts.

We’re going to do that every other week in 2018 and do a week-long analysis of each script. People who volunteer to do a scene-by-scene breakdown provide an important aspect of that process.

Who’s up to read a 2017 movie script and do the online writing community a solid by working up a scene-by-scene breakdown?

Hit me up in comments with your preferred movie script. And my personal thanks in advance!

Thanks to the folks who have already sent me their breakdowns. This will enable us to begin our 2018 bi-weekly script read and analysis series. Starting January 1, our first script: Get Out. Download the script here.

Let’s target getting the scene-by-scene breakdowns to me no later than January 1, 2018.

Avengers: Infinity War now the most watched trailer of all time

Following the premiere of the Avengers: Infinity War trailer yesterday, Marvel Studios has announced that the trailer is now the most watched trailer of all time totaling 230 million views in 24 hours. The trailer dwarfs the previous most watched trailer, the teaser for Warner Bros. IT, which brought in 197 million views in 24 hours. Watch the trailer again by clicking here!

An unprecedented cinematic journey ten years in the making and spanning the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Infinity War brings to the screen the ultimate, deadliest showdown of all time. The Avengers and their Super Hero allies must be willing to sacrifice all in an attempt to defeat the powerful Thanos before his blitz of devastation and ruin puts an end to the universe.

Anthony and Joe Russo direct the film, which is produced by Kevin Feige. Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Michael Grillo and Stan Lee are the executive producers. Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely wrote the screenplay.

Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War is slated for a release in theaters on May 4, 2018. Then, the Avengers assemble again for the still-untitled fourth film, set for May 3, 2019.

Avengers: Infinity War

Avengers: Infinity War

Avengers: Infinity War

Avengers: Infinity War

Avengers: Infinity War

Avengers: Infinity War

Avengers: Infinity War

Avengers: Infinity War

Avengers: Infinity War

Avengers: Infinity War

Avengers: Infinity War

Avengers: Infinity War

Avengers: Infinity War

Avengers: Infinity War

Avengers: Infinity War

Avengers: Infinity War

D23 EXPO 2017 – Saturday, July 15, 2017 – The Ultimate Disney Fan Event – brings together all the worlds of Disney under one roof for three packed days of presentations, pavilions, experiences, concerts, sneak peeks, shopping, and more. The event, which takes place July 14-16 at the Anaheim Convention Center, provides fans with unprecedented access to Disney films, television, games, theme parks, and celebrities. (Disney/Image Group LA)AVENGERS: EVENT & SIGNING

Avengers: Infinity War

D23 EXPO 2017 – Saturday, July 15, 2017 – The Ultimate Disney Fan Event – brings together all the worlds of Disney under one roof for three packed days of presentations, pavilions, experiences, concerts, sneak peeks, shopping, and more. The event, which takes place July 14-16 at the Anaheim Convention Center, provides fans with unprecedented access to Disney films, television, games, theme parks, and celebrities. (Disney/Image Group LA)AVENGERS: EVENT & SIGNING

Avengers: Infinity War

D23 EXPO 2017 – Saturday, July 15, 2017 – The Ultimate Disney Fan Event – brings together all the worlds of Disney under one roof for three packed days of presentations, pavilions, experiences, concerts, sneak peeks, shopping, and more. The event, which takes place July 14-16 at the Anaheim Convention Center, provides fans with unprecedented access to Disney films, television, games, theme parks, and celebrities. (Disney/Image Group LA)AVENGERS: EVENT & SIGNING

Avengers: Infinity War

D23 EXPO 2017 – Saturday, July 15, 2017 – The Ultimate Disney Fan Event – brings together all the worlds of Disney under one roof for three packed days of presentations, pavilions, experiences, concerts, sneak peeks, shopping, and more. The event, which takes place July 14-16 at the Anaheim Convention Center, provides fans with unprecedented access to Disney films, television, games, theme parks, and celebrities. (Disney/Image Group LA)AVENGERS: EVENT & SIGNING

Avengers: Infinity War

D23 EXPO 2017 – Saturday, July 15, 2017 – The Ultimate Disney Fan Event – brings together all the worlds of Disney under one roof for three packed days of presentations, pavilions, experiences, concerts, sneak peeks, shopping, and more. The event, which takes place July 14-16 at the Anaheim Convention Center, provides fans with unprecedented access to Disney films, television, games, theme parks, and celebrities. (Disney/Image Group LA)AVENGERS: EVENT & SIGNING

Avengers: Infinity War

D23 EXPO 2017 – Saturday, July 15, 2017 – The Ultimate Disney Fan Event – brings together all the worlds of Disney under one roof for three packed days of presentations, pavilions, experiences, concerts, sneak peeks, shopping, and more. The event, which takes place July 14-16 at the Anaheim Convention Center, provides fans with unprecedented access to Disney films, television, games, theme parks, and celebrities. (Disney/Image Group LA)AVENGERS: EVENT & SIGNING

Avengers: Infinity War

D23 EXPO 2017 – Saturday, July 15, 2017 – The Ultimate Disney Fan Event – brings together all the worlds of Disney under one roof for three packed days of presentations, pavilions, experiences, concerts, sneak peeks, shopping, and more. The event, which takes place July 14-16 at the Anaheim Convention Center, provides fans with unprecedented access to Disney films, television, games, theme parks, and celebrities. (Disney/Image Group LA)AVENGERS: EVENT & SIGNING

Avengers: Infinity War

D23 EXPO 2017 – Saturday, July 15, 2017 – The Ultimate Disney Fan Event – brings together all the worlds of Disney under one roof for three packed days of presentations, pavilions, experiences, concerts, sneak peeks, shopping, and more. The event, which takes place July 14-16 at the Anaheim Convention Center, provides fans with unprecedented access to Disney films, television, games, theme parks, and celebrities. (Disney/Image Group LA)AVENGERS: EVENT & SIGNING

Avengers: Infinity War

D23 EXPO 2017 – Saturday, July 15, 2017 – The Ultimate Disney Fan Event – brings together all the worlds of Disney under one roof for three packed days of presentations, pavilions, experiences, concerts, sneak peeks, shopping, and more. The event, which takes place July 14-16 at the Anaheim Convention Center, provides fans with unprecedented access to Disney films, television, games, theme parks, and celebrities. (Disney/Image Group LA)AVENGERS: EVENT & SIGNING

Avengers: Infinity War

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D23 EXPO 2017 – Saturday, July 15, 2017 – The Ultimate Disney Fan Event – brings together all the worlds of Disney under one roof for three packed days of presentations, pavilions, experiences, concerts, sneak peeks, shopping, and more. The event, which takes place July 14-16 at the Anaheim Convention Center, provides fans with unprecedented access to Disney films, television, games, theme parks, and celebrities. (Disney/Image Group LA)JOSH BROLIN

With the ongoing release of 2017 movie scripts as part of the studios annual For Your Consideration campaigns, it’s a great time to resume our Go Into The Story Script Reading and Analysis Series. To date, we have covered 63 movie scripts of such notable movies as Argo, Arrival, and Boyhood, all the way up to Up In The Air, Whiplash, and The Wolf of Wall Street.

Last year, the studios and production companies released nearly 50 scripts, so there’s a lot more to come in the next two months.

What I propose: Let’s read and analyze one 2017 movie script every other week beginning in January 2018.

Here’s where you come in: We need volunteers to read a script and provide a scene-by-scene breakdown as the launching point for our weekly discussions. Trust me, this will be a great learning experience for you and we can add your breakdown to the 55 we already have in archives, thereby adding to a valuable resource for the online writing community.

To download PDFs of the scene-by-scene breakdowns we have aggregated to date, go here.

For those folks who volunteer to do a scene-by-scene breakdown of a 2017 movie script, you not only get your name duly noted in a blog post and your name enshrined in archives, you also get a special dose of creative juju.

Finally allow me to use the words of one of Hollywood’s hottest screenwriters to bludgeon you over the head with the value of reading scripts. From my most recent interview, Jon Spaihts responds to my final question, What advice would you offer to aspiring screenwriters about learning the craft and breaking into Hollywood? Here’s his answer:

Read the script and then watch the movie. Watch the movie and then read the script. Watch the movie with the script in your lap. Study the parts. You have to see through the surfaces. Being a fan is insufficient. Break it down. That means slowing it down and looking at it through a series of different lenses.

Once you’ve begun to do that, you can see what the parts of a screenplay and the parts of a movie do.

First thing Jon said: Read scripts.

We’re going to do that every other week in 2018 and do a week-long analysis of each script. People who volunteer to do a scene-by-scene breakdown provide an important aspect of that process.

Who’s up to read a 2017 movie script and do the online writing community a solid by working up a scene-by-scene breakdown?

Hit me up in comments with your preferred movie script. And my personal thanks in advance!

In Hollywood movie circles, there are genres like Horror or Science Fiction, cross genres like Action-Thriller or Drama-Comedy, and sub-genres like Romantic Comedy or Mystery Thriller.

Then there are Story Types, a shorthand way to describe a specific narrative conceit that is almost always tied directly to the movie’s central concept. They can be found in any genre, cross genre, or sub-genre.

Knowledge about and awareness of these story types can be a boost not only to your understanding of film history and movie trends, but also as fodder for brainstorming new story concepts. Mix and match them. Invert them. Gender bend them. Genre bend them. Geo bend them.

Movie story types exist for a reason: Because they work. Hopefully this series will help you make them work for you.

Today: Time Travel.

Time travel has inspired storytellers for centuries and Hollywood hasn’t slacked off in that department either. Here is a short list of time travel movies:

Twelve Monkeys (1995): In a future world devastated by disease, a convict is sent back in time to gather information about the man-made virus that wiped out most of the human population on the planet.

Timeline (2003): A group of archaeological students become trapped in the past when they go there to retrieve their professor. The group must survive in 14th century France long enough to be rescued.

One of the most interesting movies in recent memory is this one:

Looper (2012): In 2074, when the mob wants to get rid of someone, the target is sent 30 years into the past, where a hired gun awaits. Someone like Joe, who one day learns the mob wants to ‘close the loop’ by transporting back Joe’s future self.

What is it about time travel that makes for a potentially appealing story?

It’s an excellent ‘what if’ scenario, one that can grab a viewer’s imagination

Great FOOW (Fish-Out-Of-Water) dynamic, not only different place and culture, but also a different era

Major complication typically in time travel movies: How the hell do we get back?

Play to viewer’s wish fulfillment — to go to the past and see how things really were like or go into the future and experience how things will be

There’s also this: Time travel movies will often get us to consider the mystery of time. Every moment we live, time passes. And yet, we generally go about our day to day lives hardly thinking about time. But think on this: If you live to be 80 years old, you will have lived for…

Time travel movies can make it feel as though the limitations of our life (after all, each of us is born with an ‘expiration date’) are permeable, that we can somehow stretch the amount of time we’ve been granted to live.

What are your favorite time travel movies? And what time travel movies did I not include in my list?

“To see abstract ideas become concrete reality is all it’s about.” Mongrel Media has released the first official trailer for a documentary called Big Time, telling the story or Danish architect Bjarke Ingels. You may not know his name, but he is well-known in the architecture world as a rising star. Ingels’ company Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) was given the task of designing and building one of the skyscrapers which will replace Two World Trade Center in Manhattan. He has been named “one of architecture’s biggest innovators” but that doesn’t mean he takes his work lightly. The documentary lets us “into Bjarke’s creative processes as well as the endless compromises that his work entails, and we are on the side when his personal life starts putting pressure on him, too.” An intriguing and intimate doc about an architecture virtuoso. Take a look. ›››

It’s easy to imagine the pitch meeting for Game Night, a high concept dark comedy about an evening of frivolous fun gone horrifically wrong. “What if David Fincher’s The Game starred a bunch of bumbling idiots?” Well, here you go. The first Game Night trailer is here, and I’ll be the first to admit that it made me chuckle more than a few times.

This is a low comedy, but there’s nothing wrong with a low comedy that works! Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams lead a strongcast as a couple whose weekly game night spirals out of control when an interactive “murder mystery” element is introduced. But what’s real and what’s not? And why are people actually dying and why are guns going off? And why is that dog covered in blood?

Game Night Trailer

Most importantly, Game Night is a Friday Night Lights reunion, once again putting Kyle Chandler and Jesse Plemons within spitting distance of each other. Texas forever!

While this is undeniably a glossy studio comedy hoping to please the broadest audience possible, I’ll just be honest with you and admit that yes, I laughed during this trailer. I laughed a lot. I especially laughed during the plane engine gag, an amusing bit brilliantly punctuated by McAdams’ line delivery. While I’m not a fan of Vacation, the previous film from directors John Francis Daley andJonathan Goldstein (okay, it’s straight-up rotten), the dark edge on display in this footage has my attention. After all, Bateman has been at his best when his “straightforward nice guy” persona is pushed to uncomfortable extremes, and McAdams is a frequently underutilized comedic talent. Bring it on.

Here’s the official synopsis:

Bateman and McAdams star as Max and Annie, whose weekly couples game night gets kicked up a notch when Max’s charismatic brother, Brooks (Chandler), arranges a murder mystery party, complete with fake thugs and faux federal agents. So when Brooks gets kidnapped, it’s all part of the game…right? But as the six uber-competitive gamers set out to solve the case and win, they begin to discover that neither this “game”—nor Brooks—are what they seem to be. Over the course of one chaotic night, the friends find themselves increasingly in over their heads as each twist leads to another unexpected turn. With no rules, no points, and no idea who all the players are, this could turn out to be the most fun they’ve ever had…or game over.

If you’ve ever wanted to make a film about time travel, you might want to brush up on how different filmmakers have made sense of it in their work.

Time travel movies are—awesome—we know this—but what makes them so interesting has less to do with the awesomeness of time travel as a narrative concept and more to do with the awesomeness of time travel as a plot device. (Did I mention that time travel is awesome and also has loads of awesomeness?)

There are so many films about time travel, from the silly (Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure) to the dramatic (Looper), and each one deals with the concept in different ways and for different purposes. In this video, Henry Reich of MinutePhysics, my second favorite science channel on YouTube, analyzes time travel in film and literature to determine how it functions in the hands of different writers and filmmakers. On its own, it’s an incredibly fascinating video, but if you look at it through the lens of storytelling, you can learn how adding a wrinkle in time can not only open up new narrative passageways for your time traveling characters but for your audience as well.